1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, regarding a printing system including a host computer and a printing apparatus, a printer driver installed in the host computer includes a function that allows generation of print data and transmission of the generated print data to the printing apparatus. Further, according to the printer driver discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-038659, the printer driver acquires a status of a printer in the printing operation and displays the status on a display of the host computer.
Regarding a method used by a driver for displaying a status of a printer on a display of a host computer, Mac® OS X (hereinafter simply referred to as OS), for example, has a function to display a printer status, and when a driver notifies the OS of a printer status, the status is displayed in a dialog box.
In other words, the OS includes a buffer used for storing the status to be displayed in the dialog box. When the driver notifies the OS of the printer status, the status is stored in the buffer, and then, the status is displayed in the dialog box by the OS. If the driver notifies the OS to clear the status displayed in the dialog box, the OS deletes the status from the buffer and further clears the status from the dialog box.
However, there are problems to be addressed with the above-described conventional technique.
First, the buffer used in storing the status of the OS can store a plurality of status items. The stored status items are displayed in the dialog box in the order of storage. If the driver detects an error during the printing operation and notifies the OS of the error, and further detects another error and notifies the OS again of the status, the OS stores the status items in the order they are notified, and displays them in the dialog box in that order. Thus, the driver is unable to display the error status according to its priority.
Second, during the printing operation, not only the driver but also other modules notify the OS of their status. The status items are stored in a buffer to be used for storing the status of the OS in the order they are notified. The stored status items are displayed in the dialog box in the order they are stored. At that time, the notification source of the status is not considered in the order the items are displayed. After the driver notifies the OS of an error status, if another module notifies the OS of its status, and further, if the driver notifies the OS of a different status, then the OS stores the status items in the order they are notified, and displays them in the dialog box in that order. Thus, the status of the driver and the other module may be displayed in the dialog box in a mixed manner.
Third, even after the print processing is completed, the status that remains in the buffer where the status of the OS is stored will be continuously displayed in the dialog box. Accordingly, an error status, which is cancelled when the printing is completed, maybe continuously displayed even after the print processing is completed.